


Take the Chance

by old_and_new_friends



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Background Relationships, Family Bonding, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Possibly Unrequited Love, Relationship Advice, Unrequited Love, but they are important so i tagged them, relationships are only discussed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 09:20:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29487387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/old_and_new_friends/pseuds/old_and_new_friends
Summary: Iroh struggles with his relationship, or lack thereof, with Mako.Zuko offers his grandson advice, advice which he wished he would have taken when he was younger.
Relationships: Iroh II & Zuko (Avatar), Iroh II/Mako (Avatar), Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 75





	Take the Chance

**Author's Note:**

> This spontaneously came to me and would not go away until I wrote it.

Iroh gazed pensively down at the turtle-duck pond. It was smaller than the one in the palace, as the Fire Nation embassy had to cater to Republic City zoning laws. There wasn't the space for such a large garden.

Iroh didn't mind so much though, as he mostly came for the fluffy creatures rather than the plants.

"Is something the matter, Iroh?"

Iroh startled and turned towards where he heard his grandfather's voice. Iroh wasn't expecting him for another day.

He stood, bowing to the older man out of respect before launching at him for a hug. Iroh didn't care how old he aged, he would never turn down affection from his family.

"You're here earlier than expected," Iroh said, pulling back. His grandfather's arm remained around his shoulder as he led him through the small garden space to a low table set for tea.

Iroh must have been more out of it than he thought to have missed his grandfather setting that up.

"My business in the south was quick," his grandfather said, "and between spending an extra day in the Southern Earth Kingdom or an extra day with my grandson, I chose to leave."

Iroh smiled up at his grandfather at that. 

The older man placed his hand atop Iroh’s head in a way he’d done since Iroh was a child. Iroh had resigned himself to being shorter than both his grandfather and his mother a while ago. He had no clue why the family's shorter genes decided to rear their head with him, but they had.

Iroh helped his grandfather settle to the ground, before kneeling next to the table himself.

"I don't believe I will be getting back up," his grandfather said, laughing to himself.

"I'll help you with that, too," Iroh said.

His grandfather hummed. "Is there something I can help you with in turn?" He asked. "You seemed awfully concentrated a moment ago."

Iroh looked away, not wanting to think too hard on the pang of longing in his cheat. "It's nothing," Iroh said, frowning lightly.

"It's not nothing if it's hurting you," his grandfather said. "I may not be full of proverbs but I've been known to give helpful advice here and there."

Iroh sighed and closed his eyes. He knew it was rude but he rested his elbows on the table and buried his face in his hands anyway.

"I have been very preoccupied lately," Iroh said, not going into detail. "I haven't been able to focus."

"Something is distracting you," his grandfather said. Iroh could hear the underlying question but didn't answer it.

"Someone is distracting you," his grandfather corrected.

Iroh's head shot up. "How did you know?" He asked, incredulously. He could never hide things from his grandfather for long. He didn’t know how the old man did it though.

"You just told me," he said, smirking across the table.

Iroh sighed. "It's just a small crush," Iroh said. "It will go away."

"And how long has this small crush been distracting you already?" His grandfather asked.

Iroh swallowed harshly. "Over a year," Iroh whispered.

His grandfather watched him closely before asking, "Is that how long you've known them?" 

"Sort of," Iroh replied. "I met them years ago but got to know them better recently through work, a project the two of us were put on. We started spending time together outside of work shortly after as neither of us really had friends in the city, not ones we could do things with anyway. I guess I let it go too far but there's just something about Mako that pulls me in."

"Mako?" His grandfather asked. "Avatar Korra's friend?"

Iroh blushed darkly. He hadn’t meant to say his name. "Yes," Iroh said. "He works for the RCPD. We worked together following an up-tick in triad activity that was looking to be dealing out of the country. A lot of late nights and a lot of foolish fantasies."

"Fantasies?" His grandfather asked, raising a brow.

Iroh rolled his eyes. "Not like that," Iroh said. He paused slightly before conceding. "A few like that, but mostly just, wondering what would happen if I closed the distance on nights when we sat just a bit too close in the booth together. He drives me crazy in a good way but I’m scared to tell him that. I don’t even know if he likes men or not."

Iroh heard his grandfather take a deep breath and looked up to see the man lowering his tea cup. There was a deeply contemplative look on his face.

"I'm not sure I should be telling you this," his grandfather said, slowly. "You may not wish to know it but I think, if it helps you even a little, it will be worth it."

Iroh stared at his grandfather in question.

"As you know, I married my first love," his grandfather started. "Mai and I were childhood crushes and when we got older we started dating. Well, something you might not know is that for a time, we broke up."

"What? Why?" Iroh asked, interrupting his grandfather. "I thought you loved each other. When was this?"

"We did," his grandfather said, "but at the time, shortly after my coronation, Mai and I needed to figure some things out on our own. There was a lot going on and changing in such a short period that we both needed to learn where we fit in the new world. In the meantime, your grandmother dated another guy and well, that's another story. As for myself, I was rather out of it at the time. Running a country so young was not easy."

Iroh's grandfather glared down at the table before his face smoothed over with a sigh.

"There was one thing that kept me sane," Zuko said. "Rather, one person. Your Great Uncle Sokka."

Iroh, who had taken a sip of his tea, nearly spit it out. "What?" Iroh asked, his voice hoarse from swallowing wrong.

"Yes," his grandfather said. "Sokka. We had surprisingly gotten along easy enough after a misadventure at the Boiling Rock. Of course you know that story. Anyway, the two of us worked well together and slowly as we worked on treaties and affairs between the Fire Nation and Southern Water Tribe, I started feeling, how'd you put it?"

Iroh blushed as his words from earlier came to mind.

His grandfather's hand came to his chin as he thought back. "Ah, yes, preoccupied during my duties," he said. "I had fantasies much like you did of a possible future."

"So, what did you do about it?" Iroh asked, desperate for a solution to his heartache.

"I did absolutely nothing," his grandfather said gravely, "and it was one of the biggest regrets of my life."

Iroh's jaw dropped open. His grandfather couldn’t possibly mean what Iroh thought he meant.

"But, what?" Iroh said, trying to keep the hurt down. "I thought this story was supposed to help me, now you're telling me you regret not getting together with Uncle Sokka? That you regret, regret -"

Iroh cut himself off too upset to say the words.

"No!" His grandfather said sternly. His hand latched around Iroh’s and held it tightly. "I will never regret marrying a woman as wonderful as your grandmother. I will never regret loving her and building a family with her. I do not regret your mother or you and your sister. My only regret is that Sokka is dead and I never told him. Whatever may have come of it, I would never get to see because I never told him."

Iroh and his grandfather panted harshly as the two calmed down from the momentarily heated conversation.

"I have been lucky to know two great loves in my life," Iroh's grandfather said, releasing his hand as he leaned back from the table. "At different times and in different ways when I needed them most. Mai was everything to me, but that doesn't mean Sokka couldn't be too."

Iroh bit his lip and nodded. "But what does this have to do with me?" Iroh asked, desperately. He wanted to understand but now he felt even more confused. "Why tell me this?"

"Because when I was slightly younger than you I fell in love with someone and never told them," his grandfather said, frowning down at the table. Their tea had gone cold but it was nothing a firebender couldn't easily fix. Neither of them did. "When your grandmother died I was beside myself. I'm sure you remember."

Iroh did remember. He had cried so hard he had nearly choked. His grandfather hadn't fared much better, but where Iroh's pain had been loud, and as dramatic as a thirteen year old could muster, his grandfather had gone alarmingly quiet. 

Even when people talked about him, it was done in whispers, as if speaking too loudly would break the older man.

Uncle Sokka had broken that barrier, Iroh recalled. He had marched into the palace with his typical energy and while at first he was only greeted with glares, he had been the first to make Iroh smile after his grandmother's death, even if he had cried into his Great Uncle's shoulder after.

He didn't remember much more of the event though, it having been so long ago now, and something he'd rather forget.

"Sokka woke me up," his grandfather said. "Some days I felt as if I might drift away in my mind and never return. He tethered me down. I supposed because he already knew the pain of it."

Iroh pursed his lips, having only the vaguest recollection of his Great Aunt Suki. Iroh had been too young to remember her face from anything other than photographs.

"It was a great comfort," his grandfather continued. "I have never been more grateful for Sokka then that time when I felt so alone. I know I hurt your mother deeply at the time, by hiding away from our family but it hurt to see her in your mother's smile, in your concentrated faces, in your sister's sly comments. She was everywhere. Sokka was a distraction, a pleasant one at that."

Iroh wiped a tear from his eye, wondering just when the two of them had started crying.

"I admit, I fell in love with him all over again," his grandfather confessed, "and yet, I still never told him. He died not long after. The only reason I didn't fall apart again then, was because Katara needed someone to lean on. I wasn't letting her hurt alone."

"That's why you stayed in the South Pole so long," Iroh said. He had always wondered at that. Even his father hadn't stayed as long, coming home after a month. His grandfather had stayed so long, Iroh’s sister had become beside herself thinking he was moving to the Southern Water Tribe and never coming back.

"Yes," his grandfather said.

"Did she know?" Iroh asked, curiosity eating at him the more he learned. "Did Gran Gran know the way you mourned him?"

"At the start? No," his grandfather answered, "but I think she figured it out by the end, even if she never said anything to me about it."

Iroh nodded and the two fell into a reflective silence. His grandfather had given him a lot to think about, some of which he'd rather not. He knew now why his grandfather had shared such a story.

Iroh didn't want to end up mourning Mako's death alongside Bolin after years of hiding his affection. He didn’t want to go on like his grandfather did, not after hearing how heavy the older man’s voice was with actions untaken.

Still, Iroh had one fear that continued to hold him back.

"If you had told him, and he had rejected you, would you have regretted telling him, as you regret not telling him now?" Iroh asked.

"No," his grandfather said. "If given the opportunity to tell him now I would tell him simply so he might know. If Mako rejects you, at least you will know, he will know, and you can start to move on instead of being so preoccupied by fantasies of a world where you do tell him."

Iroh nodded.

"I'm sorry to leave a pot of tea full," Iroh said, standing, "but I have something to do, before I pig-chicken out again."

Iroh nearly ran from the garden before a call stalled him at the exit.

"Iroh!" His grandfather called. "Before you go, can you help an old man up?"

Iroh laughed, moving back over to pull his grandfather to his feet. He supposed Mako could wait just a moment longer.

**Author's Note:**

> **Bonus content (as I liked where this ended and didn't want to write another chapter):**
> 
> Iroh knocked on Mako's apartment door, hoping the other was home. He was in luck as the door swung open.
> 
> He felt slightly bad as he saw the state Mako was in. The other man had a really back case of bedhead and was wearing nothing but a bathrobe, a tank top and his underwear.
> 
> "Mako," Iroh said, "it's eleven?"
> 
> "Day off, I can sleep if I want," Mako said, moving to let Iroh into the apartment. "What's up?"
> 
> Iroh licked his lips as he sat on Mako's sofa. "I need to talk to you about something," Iroh said.
> 
> "Go for it, man," Mako said, flopping down next to Iroh.
> 
> "I," Iroh said, not looking at Mako, "I really like you Mako. More than I should as a friend. If you aren't objectionable, would you like to have dinner with me?"
> 
> Mako was silent for a long time. Long enough that Iroh peeked over to see the man's face. He wasn't sure if that was a mistake or not as the accidental eye contact snapped Mako out of wherever he had gone.
> 
> "Like a date?" Mako asked.
> 
> "Yes," Iroh said, hesitantly.
> 
> "Okay," Mako said, staring at Iroh with an odd expression on his face. There was a deep blush to his cheeks and a contemplative look in his eyes.
> 
> "Okay?" Iroh asked, surprised. He had expected Mako to awkwardly reject him.  
> He didn't know what to do now.
> 
> "Yeah, I'm not going to say no to a date with you. I'm surprised you asked, though. I thought you didn't like me back," Mako said. "You never responded to flirting."
> 
> "You were flirting?" Iroh asked, even more confused.
> 
> "The entire time, Iroh," Mako said, standing. "Well, at least after our first outing outside of work. Let me get dressed and we can go get lunch instead of dinner."
> 
> Mako surprised him again by placing a tentative and skittish kiss on his cheek as he left.
> 
> "Okay," Iroh whispered to himself. A smile slipped over his lips and he reminded himself to get his grandfather the biggest thank you gift he could find.


End file.
